May 3, 2024
Dear Students,
As we head into the final weeks of this academic year, I send you my best wishes for bringing the semester to a strong finish. For those of you who are graduating, I want to acknowledge your incredible tenacity. This year’s cohort of graduates is special, including, as it does, those who completed a bachelor’s degree four years after the pandemic prevented them from having a high school graduation ceremony. All of our students have been in my mind greatly over the past weeks, with tragedies in the world disrupting yet again year-end celebrations of academic accomplishment. Atrocities underway in the Middle East and elsewhere have created a context that can make the celebration of academic accomplishment feel somehow out of place – but I think the exact opposite is true.
Academic accomplishments of students of every age around the world must not only be celebrated but cherished. We see clearly every day that the world needs leaders, like yourself, with the knowledge and skills that you are building in your work with faculty and staff, and with each other – becoming ever-more critical thinkers with essential strengths in oral and written communication, quantitative reasoning, and information literacy. These are tools for healing, growing, and contributing, and I am incredibly proud of º£½ÇÉçÇøCI’s role in adding to our society’s overall skillset in these areas.
Also to be celebrated and cherished are the words and actions of advocates for justice, and the First Amendment that guarantees the freedoms of speech and peaceful assembly. On the vast majority of campuses across the country where protests and sometimes counter-protests are taking place, we are seeing cooperation with policies establishing the appropriate guidelines that guarantee First Amendment protections while also prioritizing safety and the continuity of campus operations (refer to .) It has been painful to see actions and outcomes on campuses within and beyond California where peace has not prevailed. I ask that you join me in holding these campus communities in your heart as they go through the painful experiences they are navigating.
I do want you all to know that º£½ÇÉçÇøCI’s planning for the possibility of disruption to campus operations began at the early outset of the Cal Poly Humboldt situation and has continued throughout the days that have followed. Interim Chief Massey and other campus leaders continue to closely monitor incidents occurring at other college campuses across our state to help inform our own planning efforts. I am proud that our campus has navigated several challenging moments very well this year through open communication and cooperation of leaders in the units involved.
I encourage you to do what you can to take good care of yourselves and each other in these final weeks of the 2023-24 academic year. If you need support in doing so, I encourage you to reach out to our campus resources included below.
Dean of Students
Title IX & Inclusion
Counseling & Psychological Services
Sincerely,
Richard Yao, Ph.D.
President